Text and photos by Astrid Tonella

It’s been a few weeks since the last Roadburn, and the after-festival is always a bit nostalgic. However, this year the nostalgia didn’t last long, with the brand new fest “Heavy Days in Doomtown” coming to darken the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark. Yet another “doom/sludge” festival you would say, but actually, this event is so much more than that. First of all, HDDT is organized and managed under the DIY principles, which means that the festival is run by volunteers only and as “payment” for their performance, bands get food, accommodation and transportation fixed for them. Besides, everyone is treated equally – it actually felt during the fest that the barrier between artists/volunteers/organizing crew/festival goers was almost nonexistent. For instance, the roster doesn’t have any headliners, despite the presence of big names such as Noothgrush (performing for the first time in Europe), Jex Thoth or Coffins, but it gives the chance for local bands to perform in front of an international audience. Other unique aspect of the fest is its strong artistic dimension. Not only does HDDT focus on the music, but also on the culture and aesthetic surrounding it. Therefore, all along the fest we were able to admire the extraordinary work of David D’Andrea, Glyn “Scrawled” Smyth, Samantha Mancino, 13th Sign Collective and Benjamin Sillanpaa, creating a whole new level of experience.

Full review after the jump…
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The two young dudes who started the Los Angeles clothing brand Vow, Christopher and Jorge, describe what they create as “equal parts occult,
cynical and abrasive.” I would describe it as part clothing brand, part DIY project, like finding a dope vintage tee and silkscreening some of your art on it for a friend. These guys put love and wit into their creations, with their tongue-in-cheek hand-printed graphics and hand-distressed tees, lovingly washed many times so that you don’t have to. I think my favorite piece is their vegan leather grocery tote, a collabo they did with Little Moons. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but Santa Monica banned plastic bags from grocery stores last year, so I have been dutifully carrying around my reusable bags everywhere. Although this tote really is too awesome to be used for storing food in. You can pick up any of their tees or totes in their webstore HERE. After the jump, check out a selection of their offerings as well as images from their SS12 lookbook.

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CVLT Nation is proud to present our first two limited edition silkscreened poster prints, Death Trip and Hell Awaits, now available in our webstore! Both prints are illustrations by Cub of the Woods, and are a part of our upcoming Solstice summer season, which will be released next week. We printed them at Seattle’s own Broken Press, and Andy handcrafted these beauties on 18″ x 24″ Pegasus Midnight Black heavyweight paper. It is a very limited run of 50 pieces worldwide, and far less than that is available in the CVLT Store. After the jump, check out an up-close gallery of Death Trip and Hell Awaits, and make sure you pick one up for yourself! Also, stay tuned for the Solstice release coming soon…

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It sucks that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed away last Friday. Today, CVLT Nation wants to celebrate his punk rock and early hip hop roots. I remember getting into his first band, The Young and Useless, because they were my age, and I always thought it was extra cool when young kids started bands. Then they became the The Beastie Boys and released their first EP, Polly Wog Stew, on the NYC Hardcore label Rat Cage Records, then came Cooky Puss, an underground classic. Adam represented how punk rock and early hip hop shared common roots, because they were movements on the fringe of society. What made this so awesome is that they took the “I do not give a fuck” of punk and brought something gnarly to hip hop. Also, from the beginning to the end, Adam represented New York to the fullest. I have so much respect for how this crew always kick mad high levels of creativity, no matter what they are creating! No Sleep Til The Beastie Boys…peep the Beastieography, classic videos and a photo essay featuring pictures by Ricky Powell & Glen E. Friedman! R.I.P Adam Yauch…

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We all look things in a different way, that’s one of things that helps to make the world a cool place. This fact is especially true when it comes to art, and even more when it comes to street art. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t dig graffiti; I have always seen the artistic value in street art. That’s the great thing about living in New York – almost every surface is covered with a sticker or scrawl. This art form has now transcended color, gender, class and subculture. GIVE UP, the Texas street artist, is a perfect example of all this; all you need to do is look at his pieces to get where I’m coming from. He uses different facets of our morbid reality to get his point across. What’s killer about GIVE UP is that he is able to work in several mediums to create his art, from wheat paste, paint, spray paint and digital design. CVLT Nation has been a fan of his since he was brought to our attention by Traitors & Martyrs. We are proud to announce that he is having his art show this coming Saturday, May 5th, 2012, at the Cardoza Fine Art gallery in Houston, Texas – peep the flyer below. For those reading this that do not live in the Longhorn state, check out a huge gallery of his work that we put together after the jump. Also, recognize that GIVE UP has an awesome WEBSTORE stocked with all sort of gnarly shit from prints and music to gear. Stay tuned, we will be reviewing some tunes from his new tape label in the near future!

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From May 31st through June 1st, it’s all going down in Austin for Chaos in Tejas. In my book, this is one of the sickest festivals to take place in the world! This year, the line-up is off the hook as usual, or maybe I should say it’s beyond punktastic. So as many might already know, The Mob, Antisect, Cough, Winter, Wild//Tribe, Toxic Holocaust, Chelsea Wolfe, King Dude, Mass Grave and many fucking more awesome bands are going to wreck shit. One thing that Chaos in Tejas does well that we are celebrating today is creating killer posters for each of the shows. So right here and now, peep a huge gallery of Chaos art after the jump! Stay tuned for a bunch of cool Chaos in Tejas events happening on CVLT Nation in the near future!

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Acephalix return with “Deathless Master”, the follow up release to “Interminable Night” on Southern Lord Records READ MORE…

I really dig the way that the internet has made the world a smaller place. Also, it has allowed creative beings from around the universe to do what they do and have a way to reach humans that are willing to buy their wares. I must admit that I’m addicted to surfing the net, and I totally get stuck in the tumblr world sometimes. One day, digging around the tumblr solar system, I ran into this killer DIY Crusty Punk webstore called Sunshine Ward Distro. What makes this site rad is that they have made to order mugs by bands like Axgrinder, Shitlicker, Discharge, Amebix and Antisect plus some killer tees. I can’t forget to mention they have Revenge back patches too. Webstores like Sunshine Ward Distro get me excited because you can tell that all of the things that they create are done with mad passion. Check out a full gallery of what you can find when you make your way over to the Ward…it must be said, their prices are right!

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Some bands make you chain the way you hear music but some bands make chain the way you see the world plus what role you play in the existence of humanity.This is why CRASS deserves so much respect because of the impact they have had in so many different generations.On a personal level what always struck about this band was the visuals i would spend hours looking at their record covers.Not only the cover of CRASS records but all of the bands that they released on their labels plus of their extend family ie Spider Leg Records,Blurgh Records and Mortarhate Records.When you look at record sleeve from the CRASS collective it was always fun to figure out what messages were they trying to coney. The impact of the black and white imagery can still be seen today in the way that many Anarcho // D beat bands design their covers. The CRASS easthic is fucking timeless but the crazyy thing is all of the ill’s about society they communicating through their visuals are still present today! CVLT Nation would like to celebrate CRASS iconography today with a huge gallery of covers that will speak to the world from now until forever!…Pt.1

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Tomorrow at 7pm, Breath of the Black Muse opens at the Black Vulture Gallery in Fishtown, PA. This celebration of the macabre arts is the first of a series of installations curated by JL Joseph Beaulieu at Black Vulture that will showcase artists whose work is so often admired in the metal/hardcore/blackmetal scenes. This first installation in the quarterly series features artists from around the world, including Belgium artists Kluze Hellion and Patina Vas Diaz, Irish artist Paul McCarroll, Brooklyn’s Karlynn Holland – who also curates the Dreams Were Made for Mortals series, Bianca Olson from California, Seldon Hunt from NYC, Yeshua Hill from Burlington, VT, and many more talented and morbid artists. If you’re in the area tomorrow, we highly recommend that you check out Breath of the Black Muse! Check out some preview pieces and a list of the artists showing after the jump…

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